Happy New Year everyone, and welcome back! We’re keeping this week’s message light and breezy as you welcome students back into your classrooms and libraries.
December’s Usage Statistics
Historically, usage of the Sora collections take a dip in December, and 2022 was no different: the total number of circulations decreased between November 2022 and December 2022 by 26%. (November 2022 had 140,258 checkouts, while December had 103,478 checkouts.)
Even though the number of titles checked out decreased, the number of students accessing the collections this month grew significantly when compared to December in previous years: December 2022 had 25,260 individual students check out at least one title, compared to 22,264 students in 2021; 18,361 students in 2020; and 9,307 students in 2019. That is truly some impressive growth!
2022 Year End Stats Preview:
The final stats for the calendar year are still being compiled, but we’re very excited to share where numbers are landing for 2022! Across the consortium, there were ~1,293,552 checkouts, a 22% increase over 2021 (which had 1,044,584 checkouts).
On top of that, Wisconsin students that have the WSDLC collections available to them spent 836,164 hours reading in Sora. (Since we gave you the 2021 comparison for total checkouts, the total time read in 2021 was [a still amazing] 765,765 hours.)
(Psst. Love these charts as much as we do? You can not only view these plus more, but you can apply filters to show only your school’s/district’s activity, too!
Log in to OverDrive Marketplace, go to Insights, and then Sora Activity. You can find out more about Insights and Sora Activity in this month’s Flipped Classroom: Usage Stats)
We’ll share out more of 2022’s impressive statistics later this month as those final lingering checkouts get returned and those checkouts counted.
You can download the full calendar year’s statistics .xlsx spreadsheet, which includes detailed information on circulation numbers, holds, and other metrics, broken down by month, at the bottom of the WSDLC Year to Date Statistics page.
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FINAL CALL: WSDLC Annual Membership Meeting Topic Suggestions
Planning for 2023’s Annual Membership Meeting is underway! Over the past several weeks, we’ve been hearing from you, the WSDLC members, on the topics or themes that are on your minds and that you’d like to hear about. There have been some wonderful suggestions so far, but there’s still time for more ideas to be added!
Before Friday January 6th, please take a moment to look at the suggestions and thumbs-up the ones that resonate with you, or add more suggestions, on the WSDLC Annual Membership Meeting Topic Suggestions Padlet.
Note about using Padlet: Padlet is completely free to use, but you do not need to create an account to submit your ideas or to comment on / show your support for others’ ideas. Any comments or suggestions made in our Padlet from users without an account will appear anonymously. If you want to avoid creating a Padlet account but wouldn’t like to be anonymous, go ahead and sign your name to your idea.
The WSDLC Board will discuss all suggestions at their meeting later this month, and will reach out to potential speakers.
If you have an idea but want to use something other than Padlet, go ahead and email us your idea at wsdlc-info@wils.org.
What is the Annual Membership Meeting?
This meeting is an opportunity for the Project Managers to get feedback from members, to highlight the achievements and updates from the year, and to share what changes and updates may be coming soon. This meeting kicks off with a guest speaker or a panel of participants, all centered around a certain theme. You can view past themes, speakers, and panels in the Padlet.
Thank you very much!
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Flipped Classrooms: Usage Statistics
It’s a new month, which means it’s time for a new Flipped Classroom!
January’s Flipped Classroom is Usage Statistics, where you will learn how to view your school’s and/or district’s usage statistics by utilizing Marketplace Insights. Insights is the area of your Marketplace account where you can run a variety of reports including, but certainly not limited to, the titles and formats that are getting checked out, what’s being purchased, how many holds are on titles, and how your students are interacting with Sora. You will also see how you can break down these reports to view usage at the consortium level, by only your school (Branch), or at the Advantage level.
What are the WSDLC’s Flipped Classrooms?
The WSDLC offers a self-paced training series to help new members get oriented (and as a refresher for returning members) with their membership and the Sora collections. Every month, a different topic and set of materials are highlighted to help guide members throughout the school year. The content of these Flipped Classrooms is intended for Library Media Specialists and anyone else that may help to manage school/district library resources, OverDrive Advantage purchasing, and digital classroom materials. Materials are available for members to review independently, and OverDrive staff are ready to schedule one-on-one 20-minute sessions to answer members’ questions.
You can find more information on WSDLC Training opportunities and materials here: https://wsdlc.org/training/
Find the full calendar of self-paced training topics here: https://wsdlc.org/training/wsdlc-training-schedule/
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The WSDLC project managers and the team at OverDrive are always available if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions.
Not sure who to contact? Check out this handy guide on the WSDLC website: https://wsdlc.org/who-to-contact-with-questions/.
